HOUSTON – The front doors of the Katy Police Department are 30 miles away from those of the Houston Police Department, but according to multiple sources, the Houston Police Department is on the verge of welcoming a new police chief.
Last week, KPRC 2 Investigates asked Mayor John Whitmire, “How good of a friend is Noe Diaz?”
“I’ve worked with Noe for over 20 years. He knows Houston and I’m in conversation with him,” said the Mayor while holding a smile.
Whitmire has had concrete conversations with Diaz, according to multiple sources, and all are in agreement that Diaz, the current chief for the Katy Police Department, and a former Texas Ranger, is being targeted by Whitmire to possibly become the new top cop at HPD.
“Picking a guy from the DPS, from the Texas Rangers, with that degree of integrity and professionalism can’t hurt. I believe HPD will benefit from this selection,” said former Houston Council Member Mike Knox.
As a former member of HPD, Knox is uniquely qualified to not only understand the internal operations at HPD, but also what it takes to manage the elected personnel that make up city hall.
“Do I think he can manage it? By all indications, he can. He’s just going to have to get used to a different set of politics, a different set of community, a different set of things that he’s going to have to do, but he’s a smart guy. I think he’ll be just fine,” said Knox.
Diaz, who to be clear is of no relation to this reporter, is not commenting to KPRC 2 Investigates.
As for any additional insight from Mayor Whitmire? He quickly shut down our interview last week when I pushed him for confirmation.
However, Knox did reveal that officers in Katy are also treating Diaz to HPD as a done deal.
“Oh well, we heard he is going over to HPD and we’re going to hate to lose him, you know, we just got used to him and he’s just made some great changes, and so, we are going to have to find somebody else to carry the ball,” said Knox, describing what Katy officers are telling him.
Knox added that Katy officers feel their department’s loss is HPD’s gain.